Eiguren Amaia, Idoiaga Nahia, Berasategi Naiara, Picaza Maitane
Department of Didactics and School Organization, University of the Basque Country - UPV/EHU,, Bilbao, Spain.
Department of Evolutionary and Educational Psychology, University of the Basque Country - UPV/EHU, Bilbao, Spain.
Front Psychol. 2021 Jan 27;11:586560. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.586560. eCollection 2020.
Spain has become one of the European epicenters of coronavirus (COVID-19), a virus that particularly affects the elderly, since this group accounts for the majority of hospitalized cases and has the highest mortality rates. Therefore, the aim of this research is to understand how elderly people represent and emotionally cope with COVID-19 during the days when the pandemic emerged in Spain. Using a qualitative methodology, a free association exercise elicited by the word "COVID-19" was completed by 115 participants (age range: 60-85 years) from the North of Spain. Lexical analysis was used to analyze the content. The results revealed that the government and the mass media are criticized for failing to communicate a clear message, and for giving out information that is both insufficient and contradictory. However, participants are clear that it is essential to follow the guidelines of the scientists and doctors, which are represented as credible sources. However, when the state of alarm and the lockdown of all citizens was declared, most of the participants represented the risk as being associated with the elderly and the pandemic became something that might also affect their families. Due to these circumstances, negative emotions appear such as fear, nervousness, uncertainty, restlessness, and insecurity. Feelings of solitude and loneliness also emerged, and these are represented as being linked to death. These results indicate the need for governments to manage the current situation with the elderly by placing greater emphasis on social and inclusive policies to help alleviate the possible effects of the pandemic and the lockdown.
西班牙已成为冠状病毒（COVID-19）在欧洲的疫情中心之一，这种病毒对老年人影响尤为严重，因为该群体占住院病例的大多数，且死亡率最高。因此，本研究的目的是了解在西班牙疫情爆发期间，老年人如何看待COVID-19并在情感上应对它。采用定性方法，来自西班牙北部的115名参与者（年龄范围：60至85岁）完成了由“COVID-19”一词引发的自由联想练习。使用词汇分析来分析内容。结果显示，政府和大众媒体因未能传达明确信息、提供的信息不足且相互矛盾而受到批评。然而，参与者明确表示，遵循科学家和医生的指导方针至关重要，这些被视为可靠来源。但是，当宣布进入警戒状态并对所有公民实施封锁时，大多数参与者认为风险与老年人相关，疫情也可能影响他们的家庭。由于这些情况，出现了恐惧、紧张、不确定、不安和不安全感等负面情绪。孤独感也随之出现，并且这些被认为与死亡有关。这些结果表明，政府需要通过更加强调社会和包容性政策来应对当前与老年人相关的情况，以帮助减轻疫情和封锁可能带来的影响。
